Marker



MARKER iii , Patented Feb. 1s, 1941i UNITED STATES PATENT ol-Fleay mma Karl Floclrs, Washington, D. C. Application April 2s, 1939, serial No. 270,636

7 Claims.

This inventiony relates to road markers and more particularly to road markers incorporating a paint or binding medium and a series of autocollimating units.

Prior to the instantinvention, it has been contemplated that glass spheres, three cornered reilectors, heterogeneous shaped units, and similar reectlng and refracting units be incorporated in a pigmented binder to provide a marker suitable for use as a center line on highways for example. These prior arrangements have been hit or miss, heterogeneous, wasteful of material, relatively low in efficiency, and high in cost.

It is an object of the instant invention to provide an economical road marker comprising paint or other pigmented binding medium and transparent rods.

It is a further object oi.l the instant invention other pigmented binder incorporating a plurality of transparent rods Aarranged in accordance with a predetermined plan whereby a marker of very high efficiency and low cost is l effected. y

Other objects and the nature and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein: T

Fig. 1 is a v'lew in perspective of a highway including markers in accordance with the instant invention; n

i Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of a center line marker in' accordance with the invention;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 .of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a'view similar to Fig. 3 but of a modifl ed form of marker; l Fig. 5 isa view similar to Figs. 3 and 4 oa still further modified form; and,

Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of the form of the inventionillustrated in Fig. 5.

Referring to Fig. 1, a road or highway I0 has applied thereto a center line II and an intermediatelane line I2. The center line I I, see Figs. 2 and 3, comprises a. paint or pigmented binder I3 of a formula in accordance with the copending application Serial Number 274,666, which paint or binder is adapted to securely hold, in proper optical relation to light received from an automobile headlamp, the transparent rods I4, which can be of glass or other inorganic or organic material such as Lucite for example.

to 4provide a marker comprising a film of paint or line the rods occur levery one to six inches, more or less.

Though the rods are generally applied transv'ersely of the center line, they are actually at slight variance to the perpendicular to the cen,- ter line. For example, withxa four inch` center line, the quantity a, see Eig. 2, may be approximately one-fourth to one-half inch, more or less, depending on the width of the lane I5.

The paint or pigmented binder is preferably of such chemical and physical nature as tosecurely bond the rods I4 to the center line and hold the same about the lower half of theirindividual areas as best illustrated in Fig. 3. This relationship between the rods and the binder insures long 15 life and proper reflecting eiliciency whereby reflection will take place inthe desired auto-collimating manner as indicated-by the arrows representing light rays.

After a relatively long period of wear some of the rod-s may become dislodged from the binder and in order that avminirnum replacement be required the rods may be applied in bundles or sets of three or four as illustrated in Fig. jl. In this form of. the invention should the rod I4' be dislodged after continued wear, the rod I4 will come into play, insuring continuous high reiiecting efliciency of the center line. Similarly, after further continued long wear the marker I4 will come into efficient light receiving, re fracting and reflecting position and then nally the marker I4" will be fully exposed and will operate in the same manner described in connection with the rods I4 illustrated in Figs. 2 r and 3. The life of such a line will of course be relativelylong with accompanying high reflecting efficiency.

i The rod-.s themselves will be of a length corresponding to the width of the marker to which 40 they are applied and of a diameter ranging from approximately 0.005 inch to 0.040 inch in diameter and as their axis is. generally transverse to the axis of the marker but not perpendicular thereto, there being the slight angle A inherent in the arrangement, the light from a vehicle traveling alongside the marker in the lane I5 will travel to the center line II and be reflected back thereto. Similarly a vehicle traveling in the lane I6 but in the opposite direction will also have light from its headlamps reflected back to it. Y

It is to be understood that -it is proposed to select binders which have special affinity for the material of the rods and that the binder may even contain a solvent holding medium to eiect partial welding of the rod thereto.

Not only may rods be incorporated in the binder but when Lucite is the material from which the auto-collimating units are fabricated, ,they may be U-shaped as illustrated in Figs. 5 and' 6, Lucite having the peculiar property of causing light entering its end to travel along the axis thereof eventhough the axis be curved as illustrated by the arrows in Fig. 6. The U-shaped Lucite rods I1 may be distributed in the center line Il heterogeneously or systematically with the ends always occurring at an angle B, see Fig. 5, to the perpendicular to the axis ofthe marker I I.

In order that light may be properly reeted back to vehicles traveling in the same direction on both sides of a line such as for example vehicles traveling in lane I5, and lane l1', the lane line i2 has incorporated therein the rods I4 in a herringbone pattern. The angular disposition of each rodin the herringbone pattern is the same as that illustrated in Fig. 2.

Not only may the rods I4 be utilized on markers applied to a horizontal surface but they may be incorporated in vertical markers such as the marker I8 which is particularly effective on curves in the highway acting tb reect and refract light back t'o a source which is at a great angle to the perpendicular to the plane of the marker.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in this device without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited to what is shown in the drawing and described in the specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A combined highway and marker comprising a road surface, an elongated strip of pigmented film of predetermined thickness bonded to said road surface, a series of rod-like transparent light returning elements arranged generally transversely of and partially imbedded in said strip so as to return light to a source, said elements being spaced from each otherin a direction along the length of said strip;

2.- 'Ihe structure recited in claim 1,- the .rod-

1like transparent elements having their axes arranged at a relatively small angle tol the perpendicular to the side of the pigmented strip.

3. A combined highway and marker comprising a road surface and an elongated strip of pigmented lrn bonded to said surface, a series of sets of contiguous rod-like light refracting transparent elements partially imbedded therein, the axes-.of each set being arranged at a relatively small angle to the perpendicular to the side of the pigmented strip," said sets of elements being spaced from each other in a direction along the length of said strip. n

4. A combined highway and marker comprising a road surface, an elongated film-like strip bonded to said surface, a plurality of spaced generally U-shaped rod-like transparent elements of Lucite partially imbedded in said pigmented strip, a preponderance of said U-shaped elements having their open ends extending in the same general direction.

5. A combined highway and lane line comprising a road surface, anelongated pigmented strip bonded to said surface, a plurality of U-shaped Lucite rods partially imbedded in said pigmented strip, said rods being so arranged in said strip that a line drawn through the ends of the` legs of said rods will. be at an acute angle to the. perpendicular to the side of the said strip.

6. The structure recited in claim 1, the rodlike transparent elements being arranged in partially imbedded relation in said pigmented strip and in herringbone design.

7. A combined highway and lane line marker comprising a road surface, an elongated pigmented film bonded to said road surface, a plurality of light refracting elements at least partially imbedded in said film, each of said light 'refracting elements including one or more-transparent rods of a diameter within a range,from 0.005 inch to 0.040 inch. said elements being arranged generally transversely of the axis of said lane line, and each of said elements being. i

KARL W. FLOCKS. 

